Daylight Festival Review

“Attention, this is the last call for passengers with the direction to Daylight Festival, the boarding is about to begin. Flight DL2015 will leave soon, so make sure you be on time at Gate DL15! The connecting flights will start right after landing with destinations Athens, Miami, Angkor and Area51.”

Besides Outlands Open Air, Electric Love and Dedicated Outdoor, Daylight Festival 2015 took place at the Breda Airport this weekend and was already the 5th edition by organizer Eye4Dance and Focus Events. A new location, a matching topic, 4 stages and a cheap ticket price definitely caught our attention – but was it worth to go?

Let’s take a look at the facilities first
The new location for Daylight festival is a smaller Airport in Breda, which is located directly next to the highway, so you could have easily reached it – either by car or by bus. The parking area was next to the festival ground and well organized.

I really want to underline that this location is really good and fits the topic of Daylight Festival – which always dealt with different destinations, places, city’s or areas.

Of course you didn’t find something complete new and special and I also didn’t expect it. But, I liked the fact that they offered free sun protection, since it was nearly 30 degrees hot, free water and even a few tiny paddling pools to relax or cool yourself down.

Next stop Athens, Miami, Angkor and Area51
These were the names of the stages – Athens was the main stage and located outside as well as the Miami stage. The two other areas we’re placed inside a hangar.

The line-up was huge, if you look at the ticket price of only 27,50€! At the main stage names like Atmozfears, Brennan Heart, Bass Modulators, B-Front, Frequencerz Live, Hard Driver, Audiofreq or Jack Of Sound made you dance the whole day under the burning sun. The stage was made out of three circles, 2 smaller ones left and right and a huge third one in the middle, surrounded by the lights and three lasers.

The Miami stage was packed with just the best freestyle – Lowriderz, Dark-E & Pat-B, Mark with a K, The Prophet, The Viper or Dr Phunk made you shake your ass to different styles and crazy mixes. The stage looked like a bigger loft or somehow a small villa, located at the beach, surrounded by palms and with a nice old American car in the garage – yes, there was really such a car!

The Hardcore area was in one of the hangars, actually the bigger one of the two, presenting you some girl power in the beginning with Amada, AniMe and DaY-Mar, followed by Ophidian & Isha, Tommyknocker, Amnesys, Negative-A, Partyraiser & finally but worth to mention The Sickest Squad!

Last but not least, the raw hardstyle stage, which was the smallest area but with an awesome line-up! No others than X-Pander, Artifact, The Resistance, Digital Punk, Sub Sonik, Titan, E-Force, Jason Payne, Delete, Phuture Noize and Act of Rage created some heavy turbulences in the small hangar!

The sound was actually pretty good and, most importantly for me, very clear – you could hear the different sounds or bright leads during an awesome melody, underlined with the pumping kicks!
But I also need to admit, that the sound in the raw hardstyle area could have been better balanced – it was sometimes just a huge fusion or mass of sounds and a heavy bass. I also didn’t expect well designed or huge stages, but equated to the prize it was actually pretty good!

The sun was shining down, constantly raising the temperature. The first people entered the area and it began to get more crowded. After getting a cold beer we went to the raw area to discover X-Panders set, which was a nice first set for us. With his latest tracks he’s proven why he’s a part of A2 Records, bringing us the typical Scantraxx / A2 Records sound.

Powerful and atmospheric tracks like ‘Hell On Earth’ brought you into mood. But we thought we should go outside at this beautiful weather, because there is nothing better than some euphoric beats, the shining sun and dancing together with other people – having fun and enjoy the festival, that’s the most important aspect!

So, Atmozfears started with a Year Of Summer by Wildstylez and it was just the perfect song at the right time, reminding me of the reason I love the harder styles! Atmozfears is lately releasing one huge track after another and I can’t wait for his official Decibel anthem.

We made ourselves comfortable at the main stage, although there was some crazy shit going on at the raw, hardcore and freestyle stage. Although the main stage wasn’t that crowded, which was kind of surprising for me because most of the people gathered at the freestyle area. The atmosphere was really good.

After Atmozfears, Brennan Heart claimed the stage and delivered a feel good set, with a nice hard(core) ending! It was a nice mix of his euphoric hits, some old school tracks and the finishing, rough touch. Bass Modulators were about to hop on stage and continued playing feel good summer tracks like ‘Oxygen’ or ‘Solar’, as well as a hard ending with ‘Bounce & Break’.

It was about to get harder, since Hard Driver claimed the stage. As always his set was pretty energetic and packed with a great mix of euphoric and raw, also playing B-Front – Mysterias for example or Red Alert by Zatox. Half a hour later, we just moved to the freestyle stage were Mark With A K was about to finish his set. The last 30 minutes made me go crazy and gave me a pretty cool Freestyle-Pussylounge-Feel-Good feeling.

Back into the raw area were Sub Sonik was about to play and I always wanted to experience a set of him! His tracks are really good and signed at WE R Raw he has the best opportunities! And he did not disappoint. Really diverse and energy driven set, with hardcore similar kicks and heavy screeches.
The day nearly came to an end when B-Front played a massive set at the main stage, also playing his new single, which is really really good!

The last 30 minutes were about to begin, the gloomy and dark knight underlined the light show and no one else than Frequencerz closed down Daylight festival with a 30 minutes live set! And what the hell, it was just crazy! Supported by a freaking 30 minutes firework, lights and lasers, it was not only a 30 minutes live set, it was a complete endshow – not separated like most of the time, but more integrated into their set, which was really refreshing and stunning.

Eye4Dance really tried to deliver a nice festival and a cool ending by fire up everything that was possible and compared to the size of the festival the amount of people and the ticket prize it was really, really good.

What is left to say?
Eye4Dance has proven, that not only bigger festivals can create a magical journey. Size does not always matter, it’s more about what you do with your opportunities and they really did the best. I enjoyed it and think the festival has a great potential to become even bigger next year. A nice location, a great line up, a cheap ticket and a fitting show made this small event go big.